Brazilian Communist Party

The Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) is a communist political party in Brazil that was founded in 1922. The party was founded in the city of Niteroi by nine representatives of communist groups from Sao Paulo, Santos, Cruzeiro, Porto Alegre, Recife, Niteroi, Juiz de Fora, and Rio de Janeiro, but the party's eclectic ideological roots led to the party lacking Comintern recognition during its early years. The party was outlawed by the Brazilian government, and the party became aligned with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during the 1930s. After the end of Getulio Vargas' dictatorship in 1945, the PCB was legalized, and it grew to have 200,000 members in 1947. During the 1950s, however, the party was driven underground, and it began supporting workers' strikes across Brazil. By the mid-1960s, party membership had dropped to around 31,000. Party members who were dissatisfied with the party's Soviet line formed the new Communist Party of Brazil, but the PCB grew powerful due to its opposition to the military junta. After the 1979 amnesty, the PCB leadership began to restructure the party. In 1982, the party confirmed its democratic agenda, and Marxism was abandoned by the party leadership after the destruction of the Eastern Bloc. An internal coup in 1992 led to the formation of the Popular Socialist Party of Brazil.